In a major victory for opponents of animal cruelty, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has agreed to perform a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and immediately suspend its contract with a controversial wildlife killing agency. The agreement settles a lawsuit brought by a coalition of environmental and animal protection groups against Mendocino County.
Date created: April 21, 2016
Last updated: February 2, 2022
In response to legal pressure from a coalition of animal protection and conservation groups, Mendocino County officials agreed today to suspend the renewal of the county’s contract with the notorious federal wildlife-killing program known as Wildlife Services, pending an environmental review that will include consideration of nonlethal predator control methods. The county’s decision came after the coalition, and a Mendocino resident, filed a lawsuit against the county in November for violating the California Environmental Quality Act. As a result of that agreement, the coalition has agreed to dismiss its lawsuit.
Date created: April 13, 2015
Last updated: February 2, 2022
Campaign to Kick Off with a Benefit "Family & Friends" All Star Concert at Hard Rock Times Square—100% of Ticket Priced Benefit will go to the Animal Welfare Institute and the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance
Date created: May 22, 2013
Last updated: May 2, 2022
Disturbing evidence of a potential epidemic has been published in a study by University of Iowa College of Public Health researcher Tara Smith et al this January. The study was the first in the country to document animal-to-human transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an antibiotic-resistant form of a common bacterium that causes deadly infections, though such research has previously been conducted in Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Date created: June 8, 2009
Last updated: January 16, 2020
Mexico announced this week that it will ease fishing enforcement in the vaquita’s core Upper Gulf of California habitat at a time when only 10 of these tiny porpoises remain on Earth. The move will hasten the extinction of the vaquita, the world’s most endangered cetacean, since they can drown in illegal fishing gillnets.
Date created: July 16, 2021
Last updated: January 18, 2024
Date created: January 16, 2020
Last updated: May 27, 2021
Miami Seaquarium has been operating on Virginia Key in Miami-Dade County, Florida, since 1955.
Date created: June 24, 2024
Last updated: June 28, 2024
An article by Gina Kolata in the February 11 New York Times titled “Mice Fall Short as Test Subjects for Some of Humans’ Deadly Ills,” unleashed a maelstrom—from both those advocating alternatives to animals in research as well as those defending animal experimentation.
Date created: May 21, 2013
Last updated: January 15, 2020
In light of his recent indictment and guilty plea for charges related to dog fighting, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) calls on National Football League (NFL) quarterback Michael Vick to immediately surrender $22 million of his signing bonus back to the Atlanta Falcons.
Date created: January 23, 2009
Last updated: February 3, 2022
Since its (apocryphal) discovery in East Africa by a shepherd who watched his goats joyfully cavort across the pasture shortly after eating the red berries from an unassuming shrub, coffee traditionally has been grown in the shade, under a canopy of trees offering habitat to a variety of avian species.
Date created: September 7, 2010
Last updated: January 9, 2020
Since 2000, Congress has acted to improve the treatment of Military Working Dogs (MWDs) by facilitating their adoption at the end of their careers and authorizing the creation of a program of post-retirement veterinary care.
Date created: July 2, 2018
Last updated: July 6, 2018
On January 2, 2013, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2013 (H.R. 4310), which authorizes the Secretaries of the various military services to transfer back to Lackland Air Force Base, or another location for adoption, any Military Working Dog (MWD)
Date created: February 19, 2013
Last updated: April 24, 2024
Colonel Milton M. Kaufmann died on October 29, 2015, aged 97. For the last 40+ years, he had been a dedicated and hard-working volunteer conservationist, locally in his Maryland neighborhood and internationally, most notably in the Caribbean.
Date created: December 31, 2015
Last updated: April 24, 2024
The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office has launched an innovative and provocative radio, television, and billboard campaign to encourage the public to call 911 to report animal abuse. The goal is to expose more instances not only of animal cruelty but also of domestic violence.
Date created: August 22, 2014
Last updated: April 24, 2024
Date created: September 20, 2023
Last updated: September 6, 2024
A growing number of hunters in Minnesota are supporting legislation currently pending in the state that would restrict the use of traps intended to catch and kill furbearing animals.
Date created: May 3, 2012
Last updated: January 16, 2020
Today, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) sent letters to two county sheriffs in Minnesota, urging them to investigate and consider filing charges against Butterfield Foods, headquartered in Butterfield, Minnesota, and a Jennie-O Turkey Store facility in Melrose for violating the state’s animal cruelty law.
Date created: October 14, 2021
Last updated: January 18, 2024
In late May 2014, Minnesota made history by enacting a law that offers greater hope of adoption for dogs and cats in research. The bill was sponsored by the Beagle Freedom Project and authored by State Senator Scott Dibble.
Date created: August 22, 2014
Last updated: January 8, 2020
Actress and activist Miranda Cosgrove late yesterday joined approximately 50 science and business leaders from across the country in Washington, DC to urge members of Congress to defend the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The MMPA has provided vital protections for marine mammals like dolphins, whales and seals for 45 years, but now faces attacks from special interests in Congress.
Date created: November 16, 2017
Last updated: January 17, 2024
Mirrors have been studied extensively for mirror image stimulation (MIS) studies addressing the question of self-recognition for primates. Some MIS studies report no evidence of self recognition according to the Gallup marking paradigm (Gallup, 1970), but most do report that the chimpanzees were highly responsive to the mirrors. No quantitative studies have focused on the properties of a mirror and its use as a social enrichment tool.
Date created: May 11, 2016
Last updated: July 16, 2020
In September 2015, the USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued an interim report on its investigation into the allegations of animal abuse at the US Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) by The New York Times (see AWI Quarterly, spring 2015).
Date created: December 31, 2015
Last updated: January 9, 2020
The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that a state law prohibiting counties from imposing regulations on industrial hog operations does not violate the Missouri Constitution.
Date created: June 21, 2023
Last updated: April 17, 2024
A Missouri law defining meat as “derived from harvested production livestock or poultry” went into effect this fall. The law also creates fines and even jail time for producers who violate the act.
Date created: December 21, 2018
Last updated: December 21, 2018
Date created: April 8, 2024
Last updated: April 22, 2024
East Vail Pass on Interstate 70, between Copper Mountain Resort and the top of Vail Pass, is an important movement corridor for wildlife in Colorado. Most recently, the Summit County Safe Passages Connectivity Plan for Wildlife, initiated by the US Forest Service, identified East Vail Pass as a top priority area in which to focus human-wildlife conflict mitigation efforts in the near term. The plan, completed in 2017, was developed by a diverse group of stakeholders and provides a common vision for multispecies landscape connectivity throughout Summit County, Colorado.
Date created: December 16, 2022
Last updated: March 20, 2023
